Canvas is a small digital agency that has an excellent company culture and does great work. It is a fantastic place to grow and learn. Employee satisfaction is very important to the company, and as a former engineer, there were many opportunities to try out different technologies. The quality of the work produced there is very high, but the work life balance is also great.

Cons

Canvas is a digital agency that sometimes juggles many projects at once, so there is little time dedicated to building internal engineering tools and most time for learning new technologies is done outside of the work hours. Compensation is decent.

Canvas is a rare combination of excellent professional, portfolio building work with a strong value for work life balance. The engineering team now operates in a lateral management structure, making it flexible, and collaborative. There are no egos in the company making communication positive and productive. The team really cares about the work and keeping up with the latest technology. This has allowed me to produce strong work that has truly helped to furthered my technical career and produce work I am proud to put in my portfolio. The company also makes time for things ranging from social gatherings, technical sharing sessions, transparent company status meetings and opportunities for things like weekly cross team education sessions.

Cons

The team is strongly collaborative and team oriented. If you like to keep to yourself and have no interest in improvement, you will not be happy. The team is also small and fast moving, which can make projects challenging. You will not be content if you are not open to new ideas and learning technology.

Everyone here is really smart and no one has an ego. It's really easy to collaborate and express concern over a particular feature or product without feeling like you will have your head bitten off. Everyone is committed to making a great product that meets the needs of our clients in a stress-free environment. There's a lot of room to make your voice heard and develop new skills.

Cons

Processes are sometimes unclear and there are some growing pains as we become a bigger business, but no one passes the buck and we're all in it together.

Advice to Management

Share business development strategies with employees more frequently and provide clearer career advancement objectives.

Great office environment with bimonthly team hangs with beers and snacks. The occasional outing to a bar for happy hour etc. Everyone's open to hearing your thoughts and overall collaborative. Engineering culture is relaxed and fun, definitely room to grow as Jrs or Midlevels.

Cons

Process can be a bit bumpy, but some changes have been made to remedy and is always getting better.

It has become en vogue to work for a digital agency or a rising dot-com. After speaking with fellow colleagues in the industry and having worked here for 2 1/2+ years, I can say Canvas is at the upper echelon of an ideal work-life balance environment.

They have big ambitions and they know what their doing. They are go getters and they have very strong work ethic. The work they create is polished and professional and well thought out. They know how to sell themselves.

Cons

The work life balance is nothing but aweful. I worked here before it was known as Canvas and was around during the transition. (between 2007-2013) They treated me poorly, worked me to the bone. As a creative I had to work crazy late hours, sometimes over night and never compensated time to rest up. The account team worked as creative directors and even though functionally what you had done was correct they would make changes that even the clients would reverse, basically doubling our work load. There was no flexibility in the creative culture, if its not done their way exactly then its not right. I witnessed two rounds of massive turn over over my time there. Many people would get burnt out and have to find new jobs.

Advice to Management

What you create is fantastic, you just need to improve your company culture.

Nice office location, mostly nice people. Junior employees get lots of experience quickly. Salary is... decent. Some projects can be fun, if you're lucky enough to get the assignment.

Cons

Nobody here, even many of the senior staff, seems to have much prior agency experience at all, so at times it seems a bit like Lord of the Flies. "Product Managers" (project managers) have an alarming amount of clout, which leads to sketchy UX & design, despite mostly competent designers.

Advice to Management

Some cliques have formed that make legitimate advancement difficult. From reading the tea leaves, it seems like they also forced people out a while back. I'd be uncomfortable with this dynamic if I were you.

Highly creative, inspiring design teamDetail oriented, approachable, and dedicated engineering teamApproachable managementReasonable hours for an agency (yes you have your late nights but honestly, previous reviewers who have complained about the crazy work hours have clearly never worked for an agency where you work through weekends months on end)Bi-weekly/monthly events from general bar socials to ball games.Very diverse client base

Cons

Unclear big picture company strategyNeeds to be better at organizing and leveraging past work in new similar projectsNot enough selling of user testing and research capabilitiesNo perks from clients (yes I'm whining here a bit)

Advice to Management

Focus on positioning Canvas as a long term strategic partner with more clients.

I spent 3 years at Canvas-- super nice people that I miss, easy to work with, easy collaborators. A-list clients, *mostly* fun projects, they actually care about the work not just hours billed. Nice, bright office by union square.. Accommodating when I wanted to take a long vacation.